In a previous role (a couple of years ago) I was working on what was quite a major account for my employer. We used a third party to provide the technology platform, a team of around 25 'consultants' (they were, in reality, Cobol/Java/Unix etc. developers). The charged high day rates, and for a while that was fine. The relationship was good, mainly because the money kept rolling in. They sold our client (alongside our internal team) the digital dream. Beautifully designed products, slick customer journeys, a massive drive towards digital channels which as you will all no vastly reduces the admin costs per customer. The team was headed up by a rather obnoxious (but sometimes charming) weasel of a man, he was as slippery as they come and managed to come out of every situation smelling of roses.Fast forward 6 months, a renegotiation of the contract to the extent we were only just breaking even and the relationship had somewhat soured. A number of rather frank discussions later and we were still no further forward (they had us by the balls, all rights to the technology, exclusive rights to the code, licenses etc. why that contract was signed I will never know). One day it got so bad with the chief consultant, that he was physically removed from client site (I mean to security guards came in, grabbed his laptop and told him to get out). The relationship had really soured that much... I left not long after, but speaking to a couple of guys who still work there they have confirmed it is pretty much the same. Every time they have a team meeting, they all have to wander offsite to the hotel across the road. You couldn't make this stuff up...He talked the talk, and also walked the walk, just not the one he was expecting.
